VMware Workstation 5.5

Considerations for Moving Workstation Disks in Undoable Mode

Once you commit or discard changes made to a disk in undoable mode, you can move your disk between Linux and Windows host operating systems. You can also move your disk to different locations on your computer and to other computers with the same host operating system.

However, if you cannot or do not want to commit or discard the changes made to your undoable disk, note the following:

You can always move a disk in undoable mode between host operating systems of the same general type (for example, between two Microsoft Windows systems, or between two Linux systems). Depending upon how the disk was first set up, you may have to place the disk and its redo log in a directory that has a path name identical to that of the current directory.

You may be able to move the disk in undoable mode between Windows and Linux host systems, or move the disk to a different directory on your current system, if there is no path name information in the virtual machine's configuration file. This is true for virtual machines created under VMware Workstation 3.1 or higher; however, virtual machines created with older versions of Workstation contain full path names.

Follow these steps to check the configuration and see whether or not you can move your undoable disk without committing or discarding changes:

1. Start VMware Workstation 3.

If you are moving a disk in undoable mode from one computer to another computer, start VMware Workstation 3 on the computer that currently has your disk.

2. Open the configuration file for the virtual machine that uses the undoable mode disk you wish to move.

In the VMware Workstation window, select File > Open and choose the configuration file of the virtual machine with the disk you want to move.

3. Open the Virtual Machine Control Panel.

4. Examine the entry for your virtual disk to see whether it includes a full path to the first virtual disk file. For example, on a Windows host, you might see a disk file listing like this:

My Documents\My Virtual Machines\Windows Me\Windows Me.vmdk

Entries for SCSI disks are similar.

If your disk file information resembles the example above (with a full path to the first disk file) and you have not committed or discarded changes to the undoable disk, the following rules apply:

You can move the disk to another computer of the same type (Windows to Windows or Linux to Linux).

You must place the virtual machine's other files (including .vmx and .REDO on Windows, .vmx or .cfg and .REDO on Linux) in the same relative location on the new computer. In other words, if the virtual machine's files reside in My Documents\My Virtual Machines\Windows Me\on the original host computer, you must place them in that same location on the new host computer.

You cannot move the disk to a computer of a different type (Windows to Linux or vice versa).

You cannot move the disk to another directory on the current system.

If your disk file information does not contain a path, it looks like this:

Windows Me.vmdk

If your disk entry resembles the one above (just a filename with a .vmdk extension), you can move the disk and redo log anywhere you wish.